Does anyone else think that these cities without skyscrapers (or without many) should start by building up some density before going ahead with these supertalls?

Always wondered this, just like in some locations in China where the construction site is surrounded by undeveloped grass/dirt lots. How did the real estate market and financing of a city go from no/few highrises to supporting a monster??

That is true; furthermore, the area of Russia that is considered to be in Europe is many times larger than scores of fully European countries. Take that and smoke it in your pipes. Then you have a area that you can consider Eurasian. On top of all this you're going to need to include a tiny strip of land that is purely Asian. Yes, Russian geography is vast, there's an astounding variety of land types​. Only the continent of Africa compares in this regard; however, Africa is a continent and Russia is a country. Geographically, I often think that it can only be accurate​ly described with the word, GARGANTUAN. ������

Does anyone else think that these cities without skyscrapers (or without many) should start by building up some density before going ahead with these supertalls?

St. Petersburg has height restrictions similar to Washington DC, so they can't build skyscrapers in the middle of the city. Also, St. Petersburg center city is dense and walkable and is a UNESCO world heritage site.

Always wondered this, just like in some locations in China where the construction site is surrounded by undeveloped grass/dirt lots. How did the real estate market and financing of a city go from no/few highrises to supporting a monster??

Okay...a few things.

Firstly, these cities are an order of magnitude more dense than anything in North America or Oceania.

Secondly, the skyscrapers that do go up are usually limited by height restrictions. As such, you can either build a campus style building/set of buildings in the city or go for a taller single structure outside of it.

Lastly, they simply can't build these things in the city centers for any number of reasons. It's very rare for them to be built in the "middle of nowhere". It's a North American and Oceanic thing to have a single civic core. In most of the world, there may be a larger core but office space is generally spread throughout the city. That being the case, new showpieces tend to act as something of anchors for new residential developments in the area.

Russia is as European as France or the UK, although they maintain vast and sparsely populated territory in Asia, East of the Urals. Read some Russian Classics by Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Turgenev...Their culture has long been European and remains so today.

Russia is as European as France or the UK, although they maintain vast and sparsely populated territory in Asia, East of the Urals. Read some Russian Classics by Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Turgenev...Their culture has long been European and remains so today.

Russia isn't Europe. Yeah, part of it is technically part of the continent, but it has always been its own thing, culturally.